MANNEQUIN CHALLENGE (INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY, ISLAMABAD)

The Mannequin Challenge is a viral internet video trend where people remain frozen in action like mannequins while a video is recorded, usually with the song “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd playing in the background. Arslan Akhtar Ali; The student of Media & Mass Communication (Head/Founder of Psychology Forever) tried to make “Mannequin Challenge” video on students and staff of media department of International Islamic University, Islamabad.

The reason to introduce such small entertainment activity in media department of International Islamic University, Islamabad was to give students some relief from their intense study routines. The stress level in students in Pakistan is increasing alarmingly as a result the suicide rate in students are also increasing on daily basis. According to experts (National/International) due to heavy burden of course and lack of entertainment activities the students are becoming victim of depression.

Case of a student named “Abdul Mobin” who committed suicide; “A seventh-grader Abdul Mobin in Abbottabad took his life after he failed in exams”.

“If they don’t have the right balance of opportunities, resources and hope, they can get ‘bored’ and hopeless” explains Dr Murad Musa Khan, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.

Dr Shifa Naeem, a Karachi-based psychiatrist, believes today’s teenagers especially students are exposed to many more stresses than their counterparts were a generation or two back.

So these kind of entertainment activities should be introduced in every educational institutions of Pakistan so students can also get some time of joy along with relief from their daily hectic routines.